You saw Julie & Julia, didn’t you? Meryl Streep in an Oscar-nominated role as Julia Child and Amy Adams portraying Julie Powell, a young woman committed to cooking 524 recipes from Child’s cookbook during a single year and blogging about it. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it.

That’s the first good reason to start a blog. It could make you famous (Julie Powell’s blog got her a book deal. Her memoir inspired Nora Ephron to write the screenplay, which became the movie.)

This month, to celebrate the first anniversary of Cuisine Noir Magazine, publisher Sheree Williams will launch a blog for readers to enjoy on September 10. Located at www.theculinaryscoop.com, the blog will be called “The Culinary Scoop” — for good reason. There will be daily event listings, celebrity interviews, regular restaurant reviews and updates and you, the reader, are invited to send photos with captions updating us on what you’ve enjoyed eating, and where you’ve had delicious culinary experiences. And that’s just for starters. We’re all invited to participate in culinary conversations, to share recipes, to read about movies featuring food and books about food. The blog is the perfect pairing for this great online mag.

Which brings me to my anniversary recipe for a more delicious life. Simply, if you don’t have one, consider starting your own blog.

I’m taking it that if you’re a fan of Cuisine Noir, food plays an important part in your life. And wine. And travel. And that when you travel, the food you eat interests you. So I am thinking you might want a blog with a food focus that can be inspired by great tastes and wonderful wines and sips of good beer and stimulating conversation, all spiced by the seasons, and that can meander into the realm of culinary travel when you go on weekends getaways or longer vacations.

So, here are nine more reasons to start a blog — some of them ideas to inspire…

Once there was red wine, white wine, French wine, and anything pink was plonk. Then came the subtleties and these days, if you don’t know about appellations and terroir, and haven’t been introduced to wine flights and blind tastings, it’s like — where have you been?

Chocolate and olive oil have gone the way of wine. It’s happening with coffee, with the selection of blends and roasts.

And now?

I’m sitting at a table with my eyes shut tightly to facilitate laser focus on my taste buds and — hmmm — I take a peek at my tasting notes and conclude, yes, this is definitely bouncy. And it’s straightforward and complex. And are those notes of roasted nuts I taste?

I jot down my observations then move on to what’s next on my plate and, for heavens sake, who would have known that a steak might be a steak by any name, same as a rose, but can I compare what I sampled a minute ago to what I’m chewing now? Are they the same species of animal?

Beef Tasting Party

At this point, the same as others in our tasting party, I’ve chewed on small beef steaks from four different animals; each one a different breed; from a different part of the country; a different climate; and raised by a different farmer. I’ve chewed on what was placed at 12 o’clock on my plate; and the 3 o’clock cut. I’m about to work my way through 6 o’clock; and then I’ll be on to 9 o’clock.

And once we’ve tried them all, cleansing our palates with sliced apples in between, there will be wine. (Blind beef tasters are advised to hold off on the wine until after sampling each steak to maintain palate integrity.)

If you haven’t yet been to a blind beef tasting or held one yourself, it might very well happen soon. These things have a way of catching on and quickly becoming trends.

Meet the Meat Trend

Especially given that meat itself has become trendy recently. Knowing where an animal lived and what it ate before it made its way onto your plate, for example. And experiencing the whole darn animal right through to cutting it up yourself or discussing all the gory details with the butcher . . .

The feast is about to begin — of soccer, of music — and if there’s a party and it’s happening in South Africa, you can be sure that the beer is chilled, the charcoal is lit for the braai (think barbecue — it’s the South African equivalent), the spices are ready for the curries, and a menu of specialties reflecting the melting pot of South African cultures is waiting to tempt fans who are foodies with a sense of culinary adventure.

On the music front:

South Africa is alive right now with discordant trumpeting sounds, not of herds of raging elephants, but of a gazillion plastic horns that you can blow until the cows come home and hear sweet silence, until someone shows you how.

“Make your lips like you’re going to kiss someone and put them inside the mouth of the vuvuzela,” says KwaZulu-Natal tourism guide Mawande Bantwini, puckering up to show me how. “And blow from the stomach,” he adds, robustly patting his.

I try, and try again. And then it comes. A haunting foghorn sound; not quite ear-splitting yet. That takes practice. But it’s a start, and essential knowledge if you’re one of the anticipated 350,000 or so overseas fans expected in South Africa for World Cup 2010.

I’ve learned that the vuvuzela is South Africa’s secret weapon, a fact now revealed to Cuisine Noir readers. The South African national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, is used to playing to the ear-splitting cacophony of several thousand of these, all blown at once.

Some competing teams, claiming the noise impairs their game, have asked for the vuvuzela to be banned. (The request was declined.) “Practice, practice,” I’ve heard South African fans say in response. Versions of the origins of this blowing horn vary, depending on who you ask. The one that seems to have stuck is the African folklore story that “A baboon is killed by a lot of noise.” So, during the last quarter of a match, supporters frantically blow vuvuzelas in an attempt to kill off their opponents.

From the disharmony of the vuvuzela to harmony — and flash: The World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert, planned as a spectacular extravaganza . . .

“Me, a culinary traveler? But I don’t go and eat at famous gourmet restaurants!” The lady does protest too much, I think. I’m paying a compliment to Meg Kiuchi, an Oakland painter, foodie — and yes, culinary traveler — who is acting like I’m trying to get her to eat slugs.

“So tell me, why did you stay in that rental apartment last time you were in Paris?” I ask.

“So that we could go to the markets and buy all the wonderful produce to prepare in our own kitchen at night,” she says. “We had this fanciful idea about the markets. As it turned out, while we (in the San Francisco Bay Area) are moving toward fresh and local produce, they (les Parisiennes) are moving the other way. At least that’s how it seemed. So we ate out more than we expected and took home breads, wines and cheeses.”

“And how much travel time, would you say, is your focus the food?” The retired social worker comes up with a guesstimate breakdown of one third food; one third art, architecture and visiting museums and galleries; and one third ambience, as in walking around and taking in the feel of the place and the people. “Wandering. I love to wander,” she says. “I love to find things down backstreets. And I like to fall upon little places to eat. Like, I would not go searching out the best escargot. But to discover a little restaurant serving the best escargot …”

Telling us how he roasts coffee beans.

“I don’t think a true culinary traveler would go eat at famous gourmet restaurants, except maybe once in a while out of curiosity,” I tell her. “Face it, you’re a culinary traveler.”

Culinary Travel 101

Edible journeys make the world tastier. One of the joys of culinary travel is that no matter how voracious your appetite or where a journey takes you, there is an endless repository of flavors and smells to savor, textures to bite into, recipes to sample, traditions to discover and a never-ending buffet to taste, learn about, and share. Or to write home about when the idea of sharing a particular item kills the appetite.

There is no cookie-cutter definition. And there are no rules, just good ideas and what works for you.

Culinary Travel or Culinary Tourism?

Given that every good idea at some point becomes a business opportunity, culinary tourism — what I think of as culinary travel made formal — is one of the fastest growing tourism niches worldwide . . .

Have you checked the bridal magazines section of your local bookstore lately? I did when looking for inspiring culinary trends and traditions for this issue of Cuisine Noir. The magazines are glossy and glitzy and there are lots of them. On seductive covers and inside, I saw drop-dead gorgeous gowns, fantastical flower arrangements, breathtaking creative cakes, divinely-dressed tables — and color-coordinated decorative bites that showed food as an accessory. Pretty, yes. But did I want to eat it? Not really.

Did I see culinary trends? Indeed. These chic and pretty presentations must be the trend because, well, not one magazine showed anything different.

Was I inspired? I can’t say I was. The wedding ceremony, wherever in the world it takes place, is about ritual and tradition. Isn’t it?

Booze bath at Thetis Island wedding, Canada.

Perhaps for some people, commercialized modern-day wedding fantasy qualifies as ritual. I’m sure for those who have created the products and who feed off the market, it does. It doesn’t cut it for me, I confess.

Did I see tradition? I can’t say I saw that, either. So I thought I’d share a few traditions and ideas: some old, some new, some borrowed and adapted; none blue. But I think that’s okay.

A South African – American Wedding

In 1986, I interviewed the first mixed race couple to legally marry in South Africa. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, an apartheid law introduced in South Africa in 1949 that made it illegal for people of mixed races to marry each other, was repealed on the eve of their marriage.

Suzanne Leclerk was from the United States. Protas Madlala, her Zulu husband, was South African. To quote from my story that ran in South African Cosmopolitan magazine:

To accommodate one another, they had two receptions. The Western one was a garden party with champagne, finger sandwiches, a wedding cake and a choir. The Zulu one was a jolly affair with tribal dancing, a slaughtered cow — and hundreds of people who crowded in to see whether what they’d heard was true. Suzanne sets the scene:

“With an African wedding, there is no such thing as ‘by invitation only.’ You send invitations to those you want. The rest — they come anyway . . . ”

I have an abiding memory from childhood. It involves a vegetable garden that my dad planted one spring and a pumpkin seedling that I germinated, advised by my mother or my grandmother, on a saucer between layers of damp cotton wool. Once planted, like magic the seedling produced a small pumpkin; then fueled by daily jolts of magic this pumpkin grew and grew to become a larger, and larger, and larger pumpkin.

Every morning I would go and stare at the pumpkin in awe and wonder. I was not a farm girl, you can probably tell. Then one day, just after my father said we really should think about pumpkin recipes, I ran out in the morning to see the pumpkin. And it was gone — to some with less restraint, or more desperation, than me.

I was reminded of the incredible pumpkin that disappeared when I saw a picture of Michelle Obama with a spade shortly after she moved into the White House, and read that she was planting an organic garden. The 55 varieties of veggies going in would include chard, collard greens, lettuce, a variety of chili peppers, tomatillos — and I hoped pumpkins, or at least butternuts. The garden would provide food for First Family meals and formal dinners. And it would be used to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables.

I would add “educating children about magic” to this. Because is there anything as magical as planting a seed, have it transform, and then we eat it? (Or hopefully someone did, thinking back to my pumpkin.) And isn’t it bizarre, really, that we get into eating “foods” that bear no resemblance to anything that could possibly grow on a tree or in a veggie garden? [See an update on Mrs. Obama’s garden success here.]

So, what is Slow Food?

Readers of this column have probably noticed that the “eat fresh and local” movement has been growing like a well-watered garden, at least in parts of the United States, these past two or three years. I rented the movie Food, Inc. last weekend and recommend it. When you see Wal-Mart going organic “in response to what customers are asking for,” it is apparent that what First Lady Michelle Obama is doing at the White House is part of a groundswell.

Which brings me to the Slow Food Movement. Read my story Slow Pleasures that ran in Oakland magazine and my story An Appetite for Slow that ran in Alameda magazine for a taste of the flavors of Slow Food and to meet some real people who are involved.

The next time you want to serve a meal that is easy to prepare, needs no utensils and requires a lick of the fingers for cleanup, you might consider bunny chow. And no, this does not involve carving up and cooking Bugs, Roger or any other rabbit. In fact, in its original form, it’s about beans.

Bunny chow originated in Durban, South Africa. I first experienced it as breakfast takeout. Some of us neighborhood kids would grab our rods and head for the docks early on Sunday mornings to fish. At some point, we’d go to the grubby little harbor cafe and order “a bunny” through the serving hatch. We’d get half a loaf of soft white bread filled with a lethal bean curry that made your eyes water. The bread removed from inside the half loaf was put, like a lid, atop the curry and used to sop up the sauce.

Though nobody is sure of the origins of the name, it is understood that bunny chow was invented by Indian cafe owners and restaurateurs in the days before disposable plates and bowls. The unusual and substantial dish originated partly as a fast food for people who wanted to eat on the fly and, less agreeably, in response to apartheid-era restrictions on who could sit where and in what restaurants.

As things changed and progressed in South Africa, so did bunny chow.

Upscale restaurants began to offer it—with chicken, mutton, seafood or vegetable curry replacing the standard bean. And the option of using home-cooked or takeout curry plus a bread of choice made bunny chow a winner for casual dinner parties.

What does a man do when he has stars in his eyes, Cupid sitting on his shoulder, and he wants to woo the woman of his dreams?

Chances are, he invites her out for dinner.

If he’s a wise man, there will be chocolates, champagne on ice, and a menu to tantalize the senses. Because really, is there anything more sensual, when you think about it, than food that delights the eye; is delicious to the nose; tempts the taste buds; and is savored in a relaxed setting while gazing into the eyes of someone who can make you forget that anything exists in the world other than the pair of you, right here and right now?

Sound cliched? If you’re cynical, perhaps. But there is good reason that culinary pleasures have come to be associated with romance.

“The brain is your biggest sex organ,” says G. Frank Lawlis, PhD, an advisor on the Dr. Phil Show. And, “The satisfaction from eating a delicious meal and the satisfaction from having sex both activate pleasure receptors in the brain,” says nutrition and public health expert Audrey Cross, PhD.

When it comes to attraction, falling in love and feelings of romance, our synapses are hot-wired and dictate how we respond. And so the setting and the trimmings are not just the cherry on the top. They stir the pot, so to speak.

Now that we’ve set the scene for hearts and roses, we invite you to dive into our menu of foodie facts and fanciful ideas designed to spice up your life — in and out the bedroom — on Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Nibbles

On a recent visit to Xocolate Bar, Malena Lopez-Maggi (pictured right) and Clive Brown’s exotic little store of guilty pleasures and amor in Berkeley, Calif., chocolatier Malena was in the process of making what she called “an aphrodisiac (chocolate) bar.” It was a heady blend that included cinnamon, cardamom, clove, chili, ginger and Maca root. If you google any of these ingredients along with the term “aphrodisiac,” you will find they come up with references to love-making and libido. Malena calls the Maca “the great new Peruvian wonder ingredient,” referring to the legendary sex-enhancing qualities of the plant, which dates back to the Incas. “Here, we have the heat (of the spices) and the Maca, in combination with the dark chocolate,” she says, the dark chocolate being the key, because eating dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa and above) can boost both serotonin, which is linked to sexual arousal, and phenylethylamine, which is associated with attraction and falling in love.

Eat Dessert First

Not really. That was just to get your attention. And now that I have it, a friend told me recently how she had read that sharing a luscious dessert was effective foreplay. She’d tried it with her husband and says it works.

How to eat exactly what you want, never diet again, lose weight, and be slim, sensual and happy with yourself.

A couple of days before the New Year, I’m staying with a South African couple in Sonoma.“I had a terrible night. Felt ghastly. Couldn’t sleep. And my numbers are right out of the box.”

My friend, I’ll call him Mike, is looking pretty gruesome making his morning report. He has diabetes, hence the numbers comment. He’s been pricking his finger regularly, monitoring his count, as we’ve engaged in the whole holiday overindulgence bit.

I’ve also heard him say, at least a dozen times, “I shouldn’t really have (eat or drink) this, but I’m going to. My New Year’s resolution is to cut out all the shit and be good.”

Around the same time, I have a conversation with my Aunt Kate. Her story is about cream scones and all those delicious holiday desserts. How she’s overindulged.

Then, similar story:“My New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. I’m going to cut right back on all these things that I shouldn’t be eating.”

If these stories sound familiar, it’s not surprising.

The top New Year’s resolution, according to the website USA.gov, is to lose weight.

It’s a resolution people make over and over, year in and year out. And d’you know what?

Sure you do.

It’s not working better this year than it has before, and it’s still January.

Fact: Committing to a deprivation diet, as in cutting out things you enjoy eating and things you want to eat, does not work. And if you go “on diet,” sure as nelly, at some point you’re going to go “off diet.”

Trying to lost weight that way is all about exerting will-power. (Yuck!)

Will-power is hard.

Think of it this way, will-power is about you or me pushing against an accumulated mass of what we like to eat, want to eat, and what we’re in the habit of eating; plus all the emotions associated with what we like to eat, want to eat, and are in the habit of eating.

The good news is:

It’s possible to lose the weight without going “on diet” or setting ourselves up for the failure and hell that are core ingredients in the will-power recipe.

What Your Resist persists

Ponder this: When you’re thinking, “I am not going to eat sugar,” where is your focus? On the sugar you’re trying not to eat.

Now think of the Law of Attraction — namely, focus on what you want and you get more of it.

Ponder this: “I am fat and I’m going to lose weight.”

Where is your focus? On your fat and on the weight.

The term “what you resist persists” makes sense when we think of it like this, doesn’t it?

You’re focused on what you don’t want. On what you’re resisting.

If you’re focus is there — well, you get my drift.

Try this approach instead

Eat exactly what you want, never diet again, lose weight and be happy with yourself.

Step One: Visualization

Sit upright, close your eyes (or look down if closing your eyes is uncomfortable for you) and after a brief relaxation exercise, we’re going to visit the future. You in the future.

Breathe in and out three times. Experience the breath in the body and the nose.
One, two, three.

Now, on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being extremely relaxed, and zero being hyped and anxious, make a mental note of where you are. (If we had time, I would do a tension-releasing body scan with you to get you to an extremely relaxed state. I will record a visualization and put it on this website so come back soon for that.)

Now, project forward five years.

You’re walking on a beach or in a country area — let your mind choose somewhere you like. Somewhere you feel relaxed and safe and happy.

You’re walking with a spring in your step and feeling energetic and alive. Notice your surroundings. It’s a perfect day. You’re at exactly the right temperature. How does the sunshine feel on your body? What vegetation do you see around you? Notice the color of the sky. Notice if there are animals or people in the distance. Breath in the feeling of relaxed energy, enjoyment, happiness you’re experiencing.

And now, become aware that why you’re feeling so good and happy and energized is because your body is feeling so good and healthy and alive.
And you know that why you’re body is feeling so good, healthy and alive — your vibrancy and sense of well-being — is all due to how you’ve been nourishing yourself. It’s because you love to eat food that feeds you well.

Now, begin to think of the foods that you know are fresh, natural and delicious. Think of farmers market fare and hmmmm — think of how delicious the freshest of fruit can be. Think of aromatic coffee with a dash of cream. Think of a piece of delicious dark chocolate. Think of yourself feeling sensual around food. Think of sharing a big fresh salad or a picnic with good friends. Think of food that you can taste sunshine in, and rain, and the flavors of passion when something has been cooked with love and attention.

Know that you can add to this visualization, and you will. Know that the more powerful you make this visualization, with delicious foods you want to eat and know are health-filled, the more you’ll be attracted to eat these foods. The closer you’ll be to the health-filled energetic person striding out in your visualization.

OK. On the count of one, come back to the present.

Step Two: Focusing on Delicious

Indulge your love of food by immersing yourself in food.

You know how good you feel when you nourish yourself well (you experienced it in the visualization). And Step Two is about making these foods your focus.

This is the opposite approach to “What you resist, persists.”

This is about “Law of Attraction” eating. Here you do what it takes to focus on — to the point of obsessing on — the delicious, nutritious, energizing foods that emerged during your visualization. (You can refine and add more of them to your visualization as you continue to practice Step Two and Step Three during the coming weeks.)

How can you focus on delicious?

Make cook books and magazines featuring fresh and delicious foods a regular part of your life.

Start going to the farmer’s market to do your shopping.

Read food labels. “What am I buying if I purchase this Safeway muffin?” You can eat the Safeway muffin. Indeed. This is not about depriving yourself. This is about focusing on delicious. It’s about being aware.

Read books and articles on seasonal eating. Why would you eat seasonally? How does it support and farmers and the planet?

Read about Slow Food and how it sustains the environment.

For some people, this will be a totally new way of being. For others, this will be refocusing and reinforcing.

Many of us know about nutrition. We know how we’d like to eat and what nourishes us, even if we don’t always follow that route.

But some of us think we know, and we don’t really.

So, keep an eating journal to raise your awareness about what you eat.

Step Three: Mindful eating

We have our focus on the ingredients of a delicious that are integral to the visualization.

And now we add mindful eating.

Know this: You can eat anything you want and as much of it as you want. So, for example, if you love Mars Bars, know that you can eat 20; or 30.

HOW you eat is the focus in Step Three.

For the sake of this exercise, here is the practice to follow when you’re eating alone.

Note well: Follow the guidelines when you’re alone, and when you’re in company, until it becomes your new habit. Some people say establishing a habit takes 28 days. Other say establishing a habit takes 60 days.

Whenever you eat and no matter what you eat, sit down to eat it and use a plate, knife and fork.

Ask yourself these three questions before you start eating:

On a scale of zero to 10, how hungry am I?
On a scale of zero to 10, how much to I want to eat this particular food now?
On a scale of zero to 10, how does this food align with my visualization?

Look at the food. Smell it. Spend a moment or two appreciating it. Note:If it’s something you bought that’s fresh, think of the earth it grew in (even if you don’t know exactly where); the rain and the sunshine that helped it grow; the food’s journey to the aisles of the grocery store or the farmers market. If it’s not fresh, this won’t be so clear. If you look on the label, maybe you won’t be able to identify some of the names. Notice this. Perhaps you want to look up some of the names if you don’t recognize them as foods you know so that you become aware of what it is you’re eating.

Then bite in and savor the flavor. Just eat. No talking. No reading. No TV. Just eat and relish. Enjoy. Immerse. Savor each bite. Eat whatever you want and as much as you want. Just keep your focus on the taste and your enjoyment. When your mind wanders and when you want to rush off and do something, stay with the food. Come back to the flavor. The sensations in the mouth. Chew. Enjoy. Swallow. Chew. Enjoy. Swallow.

Recap

You have the three simple steps. Do them every day.

Do the visualization at least once a day, in the morning. Perhaps while you’re lying in bed, before you get up. If it helps, do the visualization several times a day.

Focus each day on deliciousness and what you’re introduced in Step Two.

And eat according to Step Three.

Have fun practicing your new habits. Because yes, establishing these new habits is going to take a bit of practice. And — practice makes perfect.

I am willing to guarantee that if you integrate these behaviors into your life; if you do them daily, weekly and monthly; then by the time 2010 becomes 2011, you’ll have given up any thoughts of old-fashioned diets and time-wasting resolutions.

You will have given up on trying to exert will-power.

In place of these waste-of-time preoccupations, you’ll have a healthy, sensual relationship with food and you’ll be happy with your body, your weight and with yourself.

Baskas is well aware there are a lot of people working jobs they hate — and that common for people to be have their identity so invested in their job that they stay there.

“I know some people don’t have choice. But many, I think, have more choice than they think.”

What would she advise someone not happy in a job and thinking of leaving to freelance or run their own business?

“I’d tell people to stretch their day. Start doing what it is you love. Moonlight a bit, even if you’re up all the time. If you love it and want to explore it as an option, try doing it.

“I know people who have used vacation time to try out other jobs.”

And sometimes it takes losing it and then the person goes and gets a certificate, for example; and becomes a teacher [for instance]; and then they’re really happy and wish they’d done it sooner.

Her husband loves radio. When she left her job, he was in management.

And he stepped back down. “Sometimes you give up a little bit of money and get back happiness.

“You give up earning that extra $10 000, make a change to live on that much less, and live happier.”

Her identity now?

“I’m a writer, a radio producer and a creative person who manages my own business. And I can be very supportive of the person who took my job. Every time he calls for advice, I say ‘better you than me’.”